Sons of Sol Wiki
Welcome to the Sons of Sol Wiki Sons of Sol ® is an original science-fiction universe created by Kevin J Murphy . This Wiki will record the various characters, factions, technologies and story arcs with the objectives of maintaining a perfect internal consistency for the franchise, and summarising what's going on in the universe. Sons of Sol In the early 23rd century, humanity has survived multiple manmade and natural disasters on the planet Earth and begun to make its first significant moves to colonise space. The Sol system now has a number of settlements and mining operations oweing allegiance to the Intercontinental Federation (ICF), whose guidance and control has saved humanity from destorying itself and given it a new, sustainable future. However, there are those who chafe under the ICF's rigid control and tensions are high across the Sol system. Spera is a garden world orbiting a star ten light years from Earth. Discovered in the late 21st century, its existence spurred a second Space Race and less than a century later, two sister colony ships, the Patient Stork and the'' Noble Ox'' completed their 21-year long sub-lightspeed journey and began to build man's second home. Faster Than Light technology is developed during this time allowing unmanned communications drones to make round-trip courier runs to the colony and communicate more and more rapidly as the technology improves. When the drones stop returning, however, it will be decades before anyone can learn what has transpired on Spera, and mankind laments the unsubstantiated loss of their kin. Years later, with the development of Faster Than Light travel finally a reality, humanity can begin exploring the galaxy in earnest, and finally discover the fate of its first attempt. News July 22nd, 2018 Well much has happened since the last update. Namely, the development of the game was paused, but also (before that happened) we put in for a US Registered Trademark. You can now see the fancy ® after 'Sons of Sol' above. The story behind the game being put on hold is here in this extensive blog post but we do plan to finish it working part-time hours, after a redesign (and simplification to the core elements and manageable scope). -KJM June 5th, 2017 Quite a while since an update now, but we're still going. I basically haven't filled out this wiki (apart from news) because of a) spolers, and b) the fluid nature of development. While what I could write here about factions and characters would be 90% correct after the release of Sons of Sol the game, I'd still have to revise it and rewrite it. It makes more sense to fill it out when the game is live and the fiction is officially out in the wild. As updates on the game, I'm happy to report that we passed Steam Greenlight in March and are currently on Square Enix Collective, looking for votes and feedback to grow our audience and interest publishers, streamers, and press. -KJM January 23rd, 2017 Well it seems pretty definite now that the first entry in the Sons of Sol universe will be the game mentioned in previous news. However, we've changed the name from "Sons of Sol: Crow's Nest" to "Sons of Sol". Games marketing is difficult enough without having two extra words to lug around. This puts a bit of pressure on me to make the game's story tie in more closely to the intended vision for the universe, as opposed to simply being a story about a human space-tribe on the peripheries of the main Sons Of Sol factions. We'll see how that changes the intended game story, but for now, please enjoy the first trailer for the game (first that uses proper art, anyway). -KJM October 29th, 2016 Well, it really has been a busy few months since the last news item, and a lot has happened. We finally got a real artist on the team; Fred Mangan from Guild of Dungeoneering. He's taken the game's visuals in an art-deco direction that's a huge departure from the placeholder art of the trailer shown before, but that's as distinctive and appealing enough to really stand out, which is very important in the crowded games marketplace. Allow me to share a GIF of what it's looking like, and more can be found in our DevLog. We're currently just a few weeks away from having a new public demo ready for people, and hopefully we'll get an updated trailer not too long after that. -KJM May 21st, 2016 As the game Sons of Sol: Crow's Nest will be the first fiction to be released in the Sons of Sol series, this Wikia has been kept very sparse so far. There's no story (in the public domain, anyway) to document yet, so for the time being I'm still just making periodic news updates to keep the site alive and waiting for the exciting day when we can start populating this wiki with the amazing characters, races, and stories that will make up Sons of Sol. For today, I just want to share a link the the game's first (pre-alpha) gameplay trailer. I hope you enjoy it. -KJM February 21st, 2016 The game's production proceeds, with a few part-time partners currently helping out with a trailer, music, and spaceship design. This Wiki will really start to get exciting once story and faction information can start leaking (spoiler-free until release, of course) but that will be a few months off yet. In the meantime, see the game's website for the latest screenshots, videos, and playable versions. -KJM October 22nd, 2015 It's been a very busy few months since the last bit of news. The game (Crow's Nest)'s development proceeds. A much higher quality combat demo is now available on the new RetroNeo Games website There is also now a Dev Log for anybody who wishes to follow it on TigSource. Lastly, a YouTube video of the currently available demo (v0.1.6) has gone up today, if you don't feel like playing yourself (why wouldn't you??). See below. -KJM July 20th, 2015 There's now a playable early build of the combat of Sons of Sol: Crow's Nest. It's available here on Indie DB's site. In other news, the game is officially being made by my new studio, RetroNeo Games. Check out our swish new logo below! Websites for the studio and for the game are in the works. -KJM May 3rd, 2015 Sons of Sol: Crow's Nest is officially beginning production towards a full game release! We're looking for a 2D sprite artist to join the team. We're using Unity 5.0. Contact jthespacec@gmail.com about the role. In the meantime, check out the early prototype of the game at kevinmurphygames.com/sons-of-sol-crows-nest. -KJM January 31st, 2015 I've been saying how instead of a novel, as originally intended, I may wind up putting out a game as the first Sons of Sol title. Well, today I launched my own website as a games developer. www.kevinmurphygames.com. On it I have the first Sons of Sol title, Crow's Nest. Or at least, an early version of what this might become. Regardless, today marks the day that Sons of Sol is officially a real thing in the world. Yayy! -KJM November 9th, 2014 Howdy. I've been making progress in my new endeavour (and hopefully career path) of games programmer. I've always loved sci-fi and Star Wars:X-Wing was my first game as a kid. As such, I'm learning how to program as I go, working on a project that is basically Asteroids meets Total War. I'm having great fun with it. The relevance is that I'd very much like to make the game a part (possibly the first part) of the Sons of Sol universe. I've wanted to put out a series of novels, games, comics, etc in the Sons of Sol universe for a long time. It's why I've been creating the universe. I originally intended for the first public work to be a novel, since I know that I can write, and previously couldn't program. I'm now finding that I've a great love of (and at least a small amount of talent for) programming. I've also always loved games as a story-telling medium because you're directly involved in the story and get to use your brain. I now think I may wind up telling the story I intended for a novel through the medium of a video game. It's been a life-long dream to make a game or games, and a slightly lesser one to publish a novel. Now I get to duke it out between two competing life-long dreams to see which transpires first. Seems like a win-win situation to me. -KJM September 18th, 2014 Since last we spoke, I've been on my Summer holidays to Tunisia. It was very warm, and very relaxing. Highlights were riding a camel in the Sahara at dusk, and seeing the part of the country where they filmed Star Wars Episode 4, including visiting Luke's actual Tatooine home. There're two to tick off the bucket list!! By way of update, I've been redesigning the methods of long range communication that are possible in the Sons of Sol universe. Since these have a major impact on the time it takes to communicate, they greatly affect the story I'm trying to write. Nailing the most 'fun' method is something I feel is very important as I'd hope to have other artists create material in the Sons of Sol universe, and it would all follow the same 'science'. Speaking of other media, I've spent the last few weeks getting into something that I wish I'd gotten into a decade ago. I've been learning how to program and create games (in Unity). I do love a good book, but in truth I've probably always favoured games as a story-telling medium for their immersion, involvement, and potential for audience interaction. At this rate, perhaps the first Sons of Sol work published will be a game and not the novel in progress, but that remains to be seen. Watch this space. -KJM August 6th, 2014 If you're visiting this site at this stage, chances are you know the author, or have happened upon it by accident. At this stage, nothing has ever been published in the Sons of Sol universe, or even completed. Work proceeds on the first book of the as-yet untitled trilogy, written by Kevin J Murphy and, quite excitingly, a game is being designed which will serve as a prequel to those books, involving an entirely new faction, characters, and storyline. Please note that both projects are very early in development, particularly the game, and won't be seen in the public domain this year or probably even in 2015. What we can say though is that the construction of the universe is largely complete and nailed down. This means that the author has decided on what technologies will and won't be in use in the universe, and which aspects of physics can be ignored (very few, but some) and which will be obeyed. This has been no small feat. The author has spent the better part of the last two years designing the world, the physics, the factions, and the loose storylines that will bind them all together. The last two years have also been incredibly busy with exciting news from the private and governemnt space and research agencies. Trying to predict what the world could look like in 200 years time is incredibly difficult when the "impossible" is being redefined every day. To anyone reading this, I hardly expect you to be checking back on the site for updates on the book or game. The're a long way off. But just know this, sci-fi fan: An incredibly fertile new franchise sculpted with care, love, and attention to detail are on their way to you, the much-starved and snubbed sci-fi enthusiast. -KJM Category:Browse